South Korean Prosecutors Allege Former President Planned Drone Provocations Against Kim Jong Un
Rokna Political Desk: The phone notes that reveal an alleged plan to bait Kim Jong Un with drones Secret drone flights from South Korea to the heart of Pyongyang were part of a ploy by the former president to rattle the North Korean leader, South Korean prosecutors have alleged as they released new details of plot they say preceded a foiled attempt to declare martial law. Memos found on a senior defense official’s phone purportedly reveal plans by former president Yoon Suk Yeol and two other senior defense officials to aggravate Kim Jong Un enough to justify a shocking late-night military control order issued last December. Prosecutors released the evidence on Monday, appearing to confirm North Korea’s claims that South Korea sent covert drones to the country to drop anti-regime leaflets last October. The flights prompted a rare and fiery statement from Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s powerful sister. The North vowed to sever all road and rail connections to the South, blowing up two roads within its territory, but stopping short of military action. Weeks later, Yoon declared martial law, citing the need to protect the liberal South from “North Korean communist forces.” The snap decree was lifted within hours when South Korean lawmakers pushed past troops to vote it down, the first step in a reckoning for Yoon that’s still playing out in court. A new indictment Monday adds to Yoon’s mounting legal battles, which include a trial underway for alleged insurrection, and provides more pieces to a political puzzle that’s yet to be fully explained. Yoon denies he ordered drones to fly to Pyongyang to provoke North Korea and that he attempted to stage an insurrection through martial law. Yoo Jeong-hwa, one of Yoon’s lawyers, called the indictment “a one-sided prosecution” that “fails to uphold even the basic tenets of legal logic, beyond being absurd.” However, the spokesperson and a prosecutor for the counsel, Park Ji-young, said prosecutors were “appalled” at what they had uncovered – and on Monday they released memos they say support their claim. The allegations date back to last October, when North Korean state media reported that South Korean drones had violated Pyongyang’s airspace on multiple occasions, dropping anti‑regime leaflets. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released photos showing one drone lodged in a tree, described by analysts as resembling a South Korean military unmanned aerial vehicle. KCNA also showed images of a drone it said was spotted flying low in the skies above the home of North’s Korean authoritarian supreme leader. Kim Byung-joo, a retired Korean Army four-star general now a lawmaker in the ruling Democratic Party, which sits in opposition to Yoon’s former party, told CNN in July that he had received details of the drone flights directly from whistleblowers of South Korea’s Drone Operations Command. According to Kim, the flights took place on at least three occasions, October 3, October 8-9, and November 13 of last year. “It is believed that by sending drones into the heart of North Korea and dropping leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un, the aim was to provoke a military response from the North,” the South Korean lawmaker told CNN. “It was like holding a knife to (North Korea’s) neck,” he added. North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong issued her statement on October 12, condemning the airspace incursions and warning of “severe consequences.” At the time, Kim Yong-hyun, then South Korea’s defense minister, initially denied sending drones to North Korea, but soon changed his response to say he “could not confirm” North Korea’s claim. After Yoon’s disastrous attempt to impose martial law, lawmakers from the now ruling Democratic Party demanded an inquiry into allegations the former president conspired to spark a national security crisis. Once in power, the lawmakers passed a bill to appoint an independent counsel, who released memos on Monday that they say reveal evidence of covert discussions about Yoon’s plans to provoke North Korea, a country with a long history of bombastic threats against South Korea and its allies. Among notes found on a phone belonging to the former Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung were references to creating an “unstable situation,” prosecutors said. “Must find and exploit a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can produce short-term effects. To do that, we must create an unstable situation or seize an opportunity that has been created,” read one note drafted October 18 last year, according to prosecutors. Another note read: “Targeting where (North Korea) loses face to such an extent that they feel they have no option but to respond.” Locations listed included the capital, two nuclear facilities, Kim’s vacation homes, as well as Samjiyon and Wonsan. Samjiyon is regarded as a sacred site in North Korea for being the birthplace of Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, and a symbolic location tied to his grandfather’s anti-Japanese resistance. The Wonsan-Kalma tourist area is one of Kim Jong Un’s flagship development projects, that has been hailed as a “great success” by the North Korean leader. Another memo from October 23 stated, “Goal and final status,” containing phrases such as “At minimum-national security crisis” and “At maximum-Noah’s flood,” in a possible reference to Noah’s Ark, where the only survivors of a biblical flood were those on board a mighty ship. A later note dated November 5 stated, “Enemy action must come first. There must be a wartime situation or a situation that cannot be controlled by police forces. Create the enemy’s conditions… we must wait for the decisive opportunity.” Park, the prosecutor’s spokesperson, said further details could not be disclosed due to laws concerning military secrets. However, she added that evidence from a notebook belonging to former Defense Intelligence Commander Noh Sang-won suggested that discussions and preparations for the martial law were believed to have begun no later than October 2023, after a major reshuffle of South Korea’s military generals. “The (alleged) act of the President, who holds supreme command over national security, and the defense minister, attempting to use inter-Korean military tensions to create conditions for declaring martial law, is absolutely unacceptable,” said Park. Lawmaker Kim Byung-joo, the retired general, said he was surprised the North Korean leader did not order a response after alleged South Korean drones were spotted over the capital. “In hindsight, it was a godsend luck for South Korea that North Korea refrained from any military provocation and stopped at rhetorical threats,” he said. “Had North Korea chosen to respond with military action under those circumstances, it could have escalated into a localized conflict.” North Korea’s deployment of more than 10,000 troops to Russia as combat soldiers in the war against Ukraine may have dissuaded Kim from acting further, said Kim. “North Korea could have found it difficult to maintain two war fronts, at the time. Because it would have meant causing a significant gap in combat capability.” Yoon, and his former defense officials Kim and Yeo, all face charges of harming the interest of the state by helping the enemy and abusing their power. The three are already on trial on insurrection charges relating to the martial law declaration. South Korea’s military has yet to comment on the investigation or the indictment, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. CNN has reached out to lawyers for Kim and Yeo. According to local media, Yeo has said he deeply regrets not challenging Yoon’s order. Yoon, a firebrand conservative who has long taken a hardline on North Korea, narrowly won election in 2022, but his ruling party never had a majority in parliament, and struggled to get its legislative agenda passed. It was a source of constant frustration for his administration, and towards the end of last year, that frustration exploded in spectacular fashion. On December 3, Yoon declared martial law in a late-night televised speech, saying there were “anti-state forces” within the opposition parties in the government that were sympathetic to North Korea. Armed soldiers descended on the parliament by helicopters and attempted to storm the chamber where lawmakers were gathered. Shocked and angry citizens, along with parliament staff, rushed to barricade the entrances and fought to block the soldiers from reaching the chamber in chaotic scenes broadcast live on television. Though assembly members pushed through the soldiers and voted to overturn the martial law decree, Yoon’s actions triggered mass protests, legal challenges, and ultimately, his removal through impeachment. Analysts say sending drone flights into North Korea could have been interpreted as an act of war, provoking a military response that could have escalated into war. The Korean Peninsula has been divided ever since a brutal war between the North and South ended with an armistice agreement in 1953. But the hostilities have never officially ended and relations between the two neighbors have been precarious ever since. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said if Yoon had ordered the drone flights, it “would represent a dangerous interaction of domestic politics and security policy” in South Korea. “While some national security activities are necessarily clandestine and operate in legal gray areas, robust checks, balances, and policy vetting should ensure they serve national interests rather than personal agendas,” Easley said. Victor Cha, the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the potential international ramifications of the case are considerable, especially for the United States, a South Korean treaty ally with tens of thousands of troops at bases on the Korean Peninsula. Drone flights into North Korea, he added, would violate the armistice agreement between the two sides. “We know that the North Koreans violate the armistice all the time, but they’re not held politically accountable for it at home,” he said. “In a democracy like South Korea you can be held politically accountable for that.”
According to Rokna, citing CNN, Newly released phone notes suggest that secret drone flights from South Korea into Pyongyang were part of a strategy by former President Yoon Suk Yeol to unsettle North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korean prosecutors. The documents reportedly detail a plan by Yoon and two senior defense officials to provoke Kim sufficiently to justify a late-night martial law declaration last December, which was later foiled.
The evidence, made public on Monday, appears to corroborate North Korea’s earlier claims that South Korea deployed covert drones to drop anti-regime leaflets last October. The flights prompted an unusually forceful statement from Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister. North Korea threatened to sever road and rail links to the South, destroying two roads, but stopped short of military retaliation.
Weeks later, Yoon attempted to impose martial law, citing the need to protect South Korea from “North Korean communist forces.” Lawmakers quickly overturned the decree, marking the start of legal proceedings against Yoon that are still ongoing.
Monday’s new indictment adds to Yoon’s mounting legal troubles, including an ongoing trial for alleged insurrection, and offers more insight into a political controversy that remains partly unexplained. Yoon has denied ordering drone flights to provoke North Korea or attempting to stage an insurrection through martial law.
Yoo Jeong-hwa, one of Yoon’s attorneys, called the indictment “one-sided” and claimed it “fails to adhere even to basic legal principles.” However, Park Ji-young, spokesperson for the independent counsel, said prosecutors were “shocked” by their findings and released memos supporting their claims.
The allegations relate to October 2023, when North Korean state media reported repeated violations of Pyongyang’s airspace by South Korean drones carrying leaflets critical of the regime. Photos released by KCNA showed one drone lodged in a tree, resembling a South Korean military UAV, and another flying low over Kim Jong Un’s residence.
Retired South Korean general and current lawmaker Kim Byung-joo told CNN that the drones flew on at least three occasions: October 3, October 8–9, and November 13. He said the apparent objective was to provoke a military reaction from the North, describing the operation as “like holding a knife to their neck.”
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong condemned the flights on October 12, warning of “severe consequences.” At the time, South Korea’s defense minister initially denied the flights but later stated he “could not confirm” the North’s claims.
After Yoon’s failed martial law attempt, Democratic Party lawmakers called for an investigation into alleged efforts to create a national security crisis. The independent counsel, appointed after the party assumed power, released memos that allegedly reveal covert discussions about Yoon’s plans to provoke North Korea, a country with a history of aggressive threats toward South Korea.
Notes found on former Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung’s phone referenced creating an “unstable situation” and exploiting “once-in-a-lifetime opportunities” to produce short-term effects. Other notes mentioned targeting locations where North Korea could not ignore the provocation, including the capital, nuclear facilities, Kim’s vacation homes, and symbolic sites such as Samjiyon and Wonsan.
Further notes suggested that enemy action must occur first, creating a situation beyond police control, while evidence indicates preparations for martial law began no later than October 2023 following a reshuffle of military generals.
Prosecutors described the alleged actions by Yoon and his defense officials as “absolutely unacceptable,” given their supreme command over national security. Kim Byung-joo expressed surprise that North Korea did not respond militarily to the drone flights, calling it “godsend luck” for South Korea.
Experts warn that such drone flights could have been considered acts of war, potentially escalating into conflict. South Korea’s political analysts stress the case highlights the risks of domestic politics intersecting with national security, and it carries significant international ramifications, particularly for the United States, South Korea’s treaty ally.
Sending drones into North Korea would also constitute a violation of the 1953 armistice agreement, underlining the high stakes of Yoon’s alleged actions.
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